DuPont lays off 200 Experimental Station researchers

Monday's layoffs at the Experimental Station in Alapocas were part of a massive round of job cuts that will eliminate 1,700 positions in Delaware over the next few months.(Photo: JENNIFER CORBETT/THE NEWS JOURNAL)Buy Photo

DuPont Co. laid off about 200 scientists in its Central Research and Development division at the Experimental Station on Monday, according to sources familiar with the facility's operations.

Those job losses, said to include doctorate holders and technicians, account for nearly half of the Experimental Station's central research staff. DuPont's two core research and development functions – material sciences and molecular sciences – were said to be gutted, reportedly leaving only 16 doctorate holders among the two business units.

Doug Muzyka, senior vice president and chief science and technology officer at DuPont, sought to ease concerns about the future of DuPont's central research division in an email to employees last week.

"As part of this restructuring, we are redesigning the existing Central Research & Development operating model to assess and seed new, transformational science-based ventures as the next step in the evolution of corporately funded R&D for DuPont," he wrote in the email obtained by The News Journal.

"We are also transferring some personnel from CR&D and Engineering into our business units to further accelerate growth," he added. "The changes we are making to our corporate R&D function, and the related cost reductions, are the product of a careful analysis of how we can improve the overall productivity of our R&D function company wide, maintaining scientific excellence and performing more competitively in the marketplace."

Monday's layoffs at the Experimental Station in Alapocas were part of a massive round of job cuts that will eliminate 1,700 positions in Delaware over the next few months. Company officials declined to say how many workers received notices Monday, but the losses were said to have impacted all business lines at the company's 10 Delaware facilities, all in New Castle County. At the start of the year, DuPont employed 6,100 workers in the state.

Cuts to DuPont's material sciences division are believed to be closely tied to the company's proposed plan to merge with Dow Chemical Co. later this year. First announced on Dec. 11, the merger would form DowDuPont, a $130 billion company that would then be separated into three independent businesses: agriculture/chemicals, material sciences and specialty products.

The companies' post-consolidation material sciences business will be located in Dow's corporate home of Midland, Michigan, possibly rendering many of DuPont's leading experts in the sector redundant under the reorganization.

DuPont last week announced the post-merger specialty products business will be located in Delaware.

About 150 researchers at the Experimental Station who retained their jobs were told they will be transferred to an unspecified business unit, but not provided more details, according to sources.

The future headquarters location of the post-merger agriculture/chemicals business has yet to be announced. Delaware officials said last week they are lobbying to base that future company in the state.

DuPont's layoffs in Delaware are part of the company's planned global workforce reduction that will slash DuPont's worldwide employment by 10 percent, or roughly 5,000 workers. DuPont said the cuts and consolidation of business units are expected to save the company $700 million in advance of the Dow merger.

Many in Delaware had feared cuts would come to the Experimental Station. Built in 1903, the 150-acre Experimental Station is the birthplace of DuPont's most profitable products, including Nylon; Kevlar; Tyvek; and the world's first synthetic rubber, neoprene. Roughly 2,500 employees had worked at the facility, but that number includes some who work in administrative and other functions as well as scientists.

It is not known if workers at DuPont's other major Delaware research facility, Stine Haskell in Newark, were laid off Monday. Stine Haskell had 600 employees as of last year.

The company already has halted a $35 million construction project on a 134,000-square-foot soybean research center at Stine Haskell that had been slated for completion in 2016.

All Delaware workers laid off by DuPont will receive a separation package, career placement services and training allowances based on years of service, company officials said.

According to DuPont workers, that package that includes a minimum of two months' worth of full pay with an additional month's pay for every two years of service, up to a maximum of a 12 months. The workers also reportedly are eligible to receive a pre-approved $5,000 training allowance, along with a year of so-called COBRA medical and dental coverage at employee rates.

Some DuPont workers received notice before Christmas of their impending departure as the company prepared to merge its global scientific and engineering units, while completely removing Pioneer, the Iowa-based hybrid seed unit, from Delaware.

In addition to the layoffs, dozens of DuPont employees in Delaware whose work is closely related to Pioneer reportedly are asked to consider a relocation to Iowa.

A few laid-off workers who spoke to The News Journal said they are being given several weeks before their employment comes to an end. Documents DuPont submitted to the state last week indicate many of the targeted positions will be eliminated after Feb. 29.

More DuPont workers also are expected to be notified of additional job cuts through March.

Bob Strong, deputy principal assistant at the state Labor Department, said the agency is hoping to send rapid-response teams to meet with DuPont workers by the end of January.

Those teams will provide workers with detailed information about collecting unemployment when their severance packages expire, along with job training and certification assistance, he said.

"We're expecting to provide general information to employees in advance and then hold multiple events, each with about 200 to 300 staff members, where we can provide more specific details and really drill down on their questions and concerns," he said.

"In the meantime, we've developed a survey that will help us match each worker's job title and skills to available positions throughout the state and get a better idea of what assistance these folks think they'll need."